Poultry News

Biomin Releases Latest Results of Mycotoxin Survey

30 May 2013

US - Since 2005, Biomin has been conducting extensive studies documenting the occurrence of mycotoxins worldwide. The Biomin Mycotoxin Survey Program 2012 details once again the distribution of mycotoxins according to their region of origin and commodity type.

From January 2012 until December 2012, a total of 4,023 samples collected worldwide were analyzed. In total, 14,468 analyses were carried out for the most important mycotoxins in terms of agriculture and animal production – aflatoxins (Afla), zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisins (FUM) and ochratoxin A (OTA). In addition to these mycotoxins, European samples were analyzed for T-2 toxin (T-2). Due to lab regulations in other parts of the world, the presence of this mycotoxin was not tested for in other regions.

Samples tested were diverse, ranging from cereals such as corn, wheat, barley and rice to processing by-products, namely soybean meal, corn gluten meal, dried distillers grains with soluble (DDGS) and other fodder such as straw, silage and finished feed.

In the more than 4,000 samples analyzed, Afla were present in 25 per cent, ZEN in 46 per cent, DON in 64 per cent, FUM in 56 per cent and OTA in 31 per cent. Average contamination levels of all samples were 34 ppb for Afla, 251 ppb for ZEN, 1088 ppb for DON, 1350 ppb for FUM and 5 ppb for OTA.

Compared with data from the previous year, an increase in the occurrence of fusariotoxins (DON, FUM and ZEN) was observed together with a slight decrease in Afla.

The survey confirmed once more that mycotoxins are a ubiquitous problem as 82 per cent of the analyzed samples show the presence of, at least, one mycotoxin. The presence of more than one mycotoxin in 50 per cent of the samples raises attention to another problem - the synergistic effects caused by multiple mycotoxins in animal feeds.